Physical toys containing electronic components are, traditionally named ‘electronic toys’ and are commonly seen in the average household of the 21st century. In the last few years, a new trend seems to be emerging, of connecting these electronic toys to software applications and/or to the internet. This trend is generally named the “Internet of things” and describes the general tendency to connect various consumer products to the internet and to a user's smart devices (for more details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_Things).
In the past several years, there have been many developments in the field of connected toys, and many connected toys are seen around. WO/2013/024470 of the same inventors, incorporated herein by reference, discloses a connected multifunctional toy system for providing a user a learning experience, entertaining experience, and a social experience. The connection of toys to software programs, to websites and/or servers, allows the toys to become “smarter” and more dynamic. Another example of a connected toy is the Furby toy from Hasbro that connects to the web indirectly (http://www.hasbro.com/furby/en_US/#panel_talk). This toy can connect to tablets and smartphones through encoded sound frequencies. The connection allows the user to feed his Furby toy with different dishes, record a video of them playing together and the like. Other examples for connected toys are various products by Apptoyz™ (http://www.apptoyz.com/shop/), which were designed to work with tablets and smartphones. These products include a plastic toy and a suitable application to match the plastic toy. The product line includes AppGear (a simple plastic car wheel which is used as a case for smartphones and tablets), AppCopter (RC helicopter controlled by smartphones and tablets), AppBlaster (a simple plastic gun which controls the smartphone mechanically by an arm that taps the screen every time the user pulls the trigger), AppQuiz, with the same mechanical solution (an arm taps the screen every time the user pushes the answer buttons), and the like. The key characteristic of these products is a very simple connection (and sometimes only mechanical) between the toy and the software App.
Kitchen toys are well known in the art. These kitchens give children a fun experience of playing pretend with a toy, usually designed as close to reality as possible to give the child a miniature experience of “mommy's kitchen”. Two popular companies that provide such non connected kitchens are Smoby toys™ (http://www.smoby.com/en/roleplay/kitchen/kitchens.html) and by Kidskraft™ (http://www.kidkraft.com/toys-and-playsets/kitchens). Some of the companies create toy brands with real kitchen brands, such as Tefal™ toy kitchens. These toys give a nice playing experience to the child, but they lack the feeling of objects morphing their shape and colour, as happens in real kitchens during the cooking/baking process. For example, an egg which morphs into an omelette, vegetables morphing into soup, pizza with melting cheese, water changing colour upon making a cup of tea, and the like. All of these things happen only in the child's imagination. In addition, the creation of recipes and the educational value of the unconnected kitchens is very limited, as the child only uses his imagination in order to play the game, without further instructions about healthy food, how dishes are really created, and without any guidance or encouragement for accurate actions that are made.
Concurrently, a wide variety of cooking, baking and drink making software games for children have emerged in recent years, all emphasizing these sides of play. Examples of kitchen games and cooking interactivity can be found for example in Google appstore, Apple App store, and others such as Toca Boca™ (http://tocaboca.com/app/toca-kitchen-2/). These apps allow young players to experience cooking in a very vivid way, for example by watching a tomato being roasted on the grill and observing as it changes its colour and shape to that of a roasted tomato. The child may boil water and see the bubbles coming up, bake, and fry and even put things in the microwave, all in a virtual manner with his fingers playing on the screen of the smart device or by using a computer mouse. In addition, a few characters appear on screen to give culinary feedback of the cooking, and give negative feedback if the food is not tasty (for example: burnt).
Another example is the cooking mama games by Majesco™ (http://www.cookingmamaus.com/), in which the app instructs the players how to cook specific dishes, and gives them points on their performance in preparing the dish. The app software is further operable with PlayStation™ and Wii™. In the Wii version, the player may make some physical activity to operate the game, for example: chop vegetables with the Wii remote and flip a pan with the Wii remote. However, in both of examples, as well as in other cooking application games, the game lacks the fun and experience of playing with physical toys, and more specifically, the experience of playing with a physical kitchen that resembles “mommy's kitchen”. In addition, it lacks the experience of putting these ingredients in some tangible space (in a pot, on the stove, in the oven), which provide the child with a more realistic experience of play.
Another example of a kitchen toy that may be relevant to the field of the invention is described in http://www.plumproducts.com/plum-snowdrop-interactive-wooden-play-kitchen.html. In this example, the physical experience is very limited and the child doesn't get any response for activities he performs in the kitchen.
In contrast to the prior art kitchens described above, the connected toy kitchen provided herein provides the child a unique experience of play and unique simulation of cooking in a real kitchen. The invention is directed to a connected toy kitchen comprising novel technical and electrical features that allows the player to simulate a real cooking experience and combine physical experience with a virtual one.